Turkey panic with half-empty restaurants as soaring inflation sees tourists flee to Greece
Turkey restaurants are sitting half empty in peak season as the country experience's a massive drop in tourism.
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Turkey is experiencing a massive drop in tourism leaving some restaurants sitting half empty in peak season as tourists reportedly head to Greece instead.
Soaring inflation in Turkey has sparked angry citizens to share their eye watering bills while fellow Turks boast they’re paying far less than prices at home a few kilometres away on the Greek Islands.
Restaurant and hotel prices rose by an average 91% in June from a year earlier, topping already eye-watering headline inflation of 71.6%.
Kivanc Meric, an executive at the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, believes Turkey has lost their “price advantage”.
Meric told Euronews he expects as many as 150,000 Turks to go to the Greek island of Samos this year, up from around 40,000 in 2023.
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“There’s a huge difference between the service and product quality, as well as prices here and there,” said Murat Yavuz, a retired Turkish banker who regularly visits Greece. He added: “Restaurants here have used inflation as a pretext to push up prices.”
Kaplan Ilhan, 57, chef at a fish restaurant in the resort town of Kusadasi, said business has declined by about 25% compared to last season. “The cost of living is a factor, but rumours on social media about Greece being cheaper also play a big role”.
Baris Tansever, founder of the upmarket Sunset Grill & Bar in Istanbul, says business is down about a quarter from last year.
He said: “With interest rates at 50% and inflation above 70%, people are in shock”.
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On April 1, 2024, Greece launched visas on arrival for Turkish visitors and under this scheme Turkish citizens are entitled to visit 10 Greek islands with an express visa for up to seven days, this has caused the number of Turkish tourists in Greece to surge.
During the first 10 days of April, the islands of Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos and Rhodes combined welcomed 20,690 Turkish tourists, many of whom in previous years when it was trickier to secure visas are likely to have holidayed in their home country.
The drop in tourism in Turkey has forced some hotels in resorts such as Bodrum to reduce prices by up to 50 percent for the second half of July and first two weeks of August in a bid to entice visitors.
